The Ampex sign and the German connection

The officer, Signal Corps Lt. John Mullin, was an electrical engineer in civilian life. He was so impressed with what he heard that he later tracked down German recording equipment. One report said the gear was found in Paris while others say the discovery was in Germany. Wherever it was, Mullin, who died in 1999 at the age of 85, brought the German recording device — called a Magnetophon — and 50 reels of tape back home with him to San Francisco where he demonstrated his modified version of the device to a radio engineering club in 1946. The audience included Ampex engineer Harold Lindsay.

At that time, Ampex was a small San Carlos company that made electric motors for Navy radar systems. Ampex founder Alexander M. Poniatoff was so impressed with the German Magnetophon that he went to work developing an improved tape recorder that could be used for master recording (Ampex takes its name from Poniatoff’s initials plus “ex” for excellence). Ampex moved to Redwood City in the 1950s and became one of the first American companies to make magnetic tape recorders. It is now based in Hayward.

In addition to German scientists, Ampex owes a tip of the hat to singer Bing Crosby, whose voice sounded tinny when recorded on discs. The Crosby show on Oct. 1, 1947, was recorded on Ampex tape and broadcast with Ampex equipment. The show that featured Crosby’s crystal-clear rendition of “My Heart is a Hobo” was so well received some stations were overwhelmed with calls from people who thought the broadcast was live. Shortly afterward, Crosby advanced Ampex $50,000. Elvis Presley added to the company history in 1954 when he recorded his first single, “That’s All Right,” on an Ampex device.

Recording on discs was standard for the broadcast industry in the United States before Ampex changed the game. Discs were easily subject to shock, vibration and temperature changes. The other option was wire recording which was mainly used as a dictation device.

The Germans were way ahead. In 1938, magnetic tape was standard in Germany and by 1941 all German radio stations were using high-fidelity Magnetophons. A typical radio day in Germany would include live and taped speeches by Nazi officials, interspersed with taped music and commentary. Such flexibility would not come to American radio for nearly 10 more years.

In an article in “High Fidelity” magazine in 1976, Mullin recalled his days in the Army when he worked late into the night troubleshooting radio receiver problems in England. He said he was shocked to discover by flipping the dial that large symphony orchestras were broadcasting late into the night in Germany. He knew by the length of the programs and the high quality of the sound that they were not disc recordings.

“In Germany at that stage, of course, Hitler could have anything he wanted,” Mullin concluded.

Mullin’s determination led to Ampex becoming one of Silicon Valley’s first tech giants with a list of successes that includes the first videotape recorder.

Recently, the Ampex sign was taken down to make way for construction of Stanford’s new satellite campus. A suggestion: Why not put the sign back in its original location and add a marker that tells of the Ampex legacy? As Stanford University was “sensitive” enough to drop its Indian mascot, how about being “sensitive” to Redwood City’s history?

The Rear View Mirror by history columnist Jim Clifford appears in the Daily Journal every other Monday. Objects in The Mirror are closer than they appear.